In My Time of Need

[Lok Xiangu]

Dosuun

Oh, chit. Why today?

Another day of crime fighting which meant another day of putting her life at high risk. High risk, and low reward. Not that she cared if people were grateful for what she had done in the past or cared about getting some sort of recognition, yet the only recognition she received from a majority of the public eye was being feared, being unwanted, and being disliked. Did she care at all? Nope, she didn't.

But maybe she could start worrying more about herself and her wellbeing as she continued her vigilante job.

Her armor, and an awful one too, was battered and broken. And the same could be somewhat said to her body.

The Delarn's hands were clutching on her right side, trying to stop the bleeding from the wound some lowlife thug had gave her. It was really nasty and bad. She may be tough and dangerous, but her skin was fragile to heavy and brutal attacks such as a a speedy slug or two. But alas, all her effort did nothing too significant to stop her from the pain and blood loss. At least it was all worth it. Took down some wannabe cartel ring here in First Order occupied Dosuun and ended it right there and then. The survivors would be too scared and afraid to try any stuff like that. No doubt they were crying back to their mothers. The non-survivors would, however, rest in peace and not worrying about having nightmares of Catya chasing them with the intent of hurting or ending them.

Need...help...

The young Arkanian Offshoot would collapse to the ground on her chest, her consciousness slowly fading into black.

[member="Iraja Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

"Irajah, go home."

Her shift had ended two hours ago. And she had arrived an hour early that morning. It wasn't uncommon, in an emergency, for staff to stay later. But right now, the clinic was actually fairly quiet. They had more than enough staff on hand to handle the current load. So why was she still here?

"Just one more patient, Jai, I promise and then-"

Gideon

As she was reached for the next chart the other doctor reached out. Jai snatched the chart first, giving the shorter woman a stern look.

"Go. Home. Eat something. Help that boy with his home work. Get some sleep for feth's sake. Maybe take a day off. Hell, take two days off. But whatever you are doing, get out of here. I don't know what's going on right now- but you're working too hard. It's not good for you. I'm serious, Raj. You look like death warmed over. You're no good to us like this. I will expect to NOT see you here tomorrow. Now scoot."

She had relented then, not as though she was given much of a choice. After grabbing her coat she shoved her hands deep in to her pockets and headed out in to the cold.

Work was good for her. At least, that's what she told herself. When she was working, with patients, she didn't think about it. She could pretend that she'd never gone to Gap Nine. That she and [member="Boo Chiyo"] were building a regular, normal life- well, as normal as a blue ex-slave orphan and a doctor could manage, anyway.

But when she wasn't working.....

Project Gideon

It was that much harder to ignore.

She realized, with some level of guilt, that Boo would have been home for at least an hour. He had a key, and could take care of himself, but she'd been a little distant since he'd come back from his 'field trip' and she knew it. It hadn't been long, and they'd both been through a lot. It was easy to brush it off as the aftermath of the Ssi-Ruuk attack on Dosuun. But there was only so long that worked.

She'd do better. He deserved that. She didn't mentally explore that decision too deeply. If she had, she might have realized it was just another deflection tactic. Another way of putting something real between her and the places her thoughts went when they had nothing else to occupy them. She might have realized it was just one more way she was walking deeper and deeper in to denial about

Gideon

Gritting her teeth, she turned a corner, down a short cut alley she knew. Normally she stuck to the main streets, but Avalonia was fairly safe and she was in a hurry.

Pulling up short, she only paused for half a heartbeat before closing the distance to the still form against the wall. Tearing off her gloves, she knelt, fingers searching for a pulse.

"Hello?" She said, her voice soft but urgent. "Can you hear me? I'm going to roll you over, okay?"

She didn't know if they would answer. The pulse beneath her fingers was thready and weak. The whispering words faded in to the background as she focused on the woman lying facedown in the ally.

[member="Catya Delarn"]

 

[Lok Xiangu]

She was cold and shivering from it. That's all she could feel and knew that existed. The cold, and the pain. The rest seemed like some hallucination from her own mind. Everything to her own eyes was as if time and space was bending around her, and the only thing that mattered was her body and herself. Irajah's voice was like a fading yell to Catya's consciousness and something that the Vigilante didn't care about unless it started to call out for Catya again. Not just that but when Irajah touched her to find a weakening pulse, Catya could care less about it or if she was about to be turned over on her back.

All she truly wanted was to be warm and the pain to go away whether it be death embracing her or someone healing her from it. Either way, she didn't care how it ended but she wanted it to stop right now.

She would groan once she was rolled over on her back and the doctor would find Catya's young and pretty face concealed by some helmet that could amplify her voice into something cruel and scary. But the Delarn had no strength to utter a single syllable from her mouth and barely had any energy to think of anything besides wanting her body to be rid of what she was experiencing. Other times it was minor and somewhat insignificant, but her luck ran out today as this was very critical to the Arkanian Offshoot.

Just like that her consciousness was pitch black. She wasn't dead, but her senses were on par of being deaf, null, and blind.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah was already fumbling with the comm on her belt.

"This is Doctor Ven. I need an emergency vehicle to the corner of Sixth and Avon."

She flipped up the visor of the helmet, hazel eyes on the other woman's face for a moment before tracking down. That wasn't good.

"Humanoid female- possible stab wound. She's unconscious. How long? I'll be here."

Dropping her comm, her fingers sought out the source of the bleed- yes, there. She applied pressure with one hand, keeping the other on the woman's pulse.

The next two minutes were incredibly long.

*****

"Raj! I thought I told you to go-"

Irajah had come in through the double doors, flanking the repulsor-lift that carried [member="Catya Delarn"].

"Home. I know. Out of the way-"

Jai actually put her hand out, pressing against Irajah's sternum.

"There are other doctors here," she said softly, looking down at the smaller woman.

Irajah just gave her a helpless shrug.

"Would you walk away after finding someone in the street?"

Jai frowned, then slowly, shook her head. Lowering her arm, she stepped aside, jerking her head toward the room they'd just brought the unconscious woman in to.

"Minimum two days off after this. I'm not joking."

 

[Lok Xiangu]

She could feel her body being moved and touched by many hands. Something that she didn't really took any importance of, but she could feel some of her pain being alleviated from her body. That's what she needed and wanted. Was it the veil of death or the works of a medic doing this? She didn't know or even care who or what it was. Just as long as she was getting that treatment, then her subconscious would be content.

*****

Her conscious seemed to return to her, but only a little amount of it. Catya knew she was in some sort of white room on a repulsor-lift, but she couldn't decipher that she was receiving help or the ward of some hospital. The Delarn also had no strength to lazily utter a word or move any of her body parts. She was static; however, she was not paralyze. The only thing that she could do was move her eyes which appeared to look as if they were half-dead, breathe, and listen to distant noises and not making any sense of it.

Where am I? Am I dead? And what's up with these things poking my body?

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

"Doctor, she's regaining consciousness."

A silhouette blocked out the bright light above [member="Catya Delarn"]. If her eyes could focus enough, she'd see the concerned Irajah hovering above her.

"Don't be afraid," she said gently. "You're at C.C.M.C.- a hospital. You've lost a lot of blood. My name is Doctor Ven, and we're here to help you. If you can hear and understand me, blink twice."

Though Irajah was all that the woman could see, there was the sense of activity all around them. They were already transfusing blood and prepping for the repairs that they would have to make to the stab wound- the scanners showed internal damage that simply dunking her in bacta wasn't going to fix.

 

[Lok Xiangu]

The light that blinded her eyes was covered by the image of Irajah's face which made it somewhat easy for her to see for her eyes. Her vision was, however, not at it's greatest as some things seemed fuzzy and blurry to her optical senses. Nevertheless, she could decipher the fact that Irajah was a woman just by the way she spoke and her facial features that Catya could make out of.

Her ears couldn't make out the words that the doctor was despite knowing that her tone was feminine.

She blinked once and then said very weakly, "Wh-what?"

Then she tried to do something that would annoy the doctors and cause most of their work to be ruined. She tried and struggled to get herself up.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah was not a strong woman. But she could be firm when she needed to be. She reached out, hands planted on [member="Catya Delarn"]'s shoulders.

"Relax, please- We've managed to slow the bleeding, but we need you to lie still so it doesn't start up again."

One of the nurses arched an eyebrow, ready with a sedative if needed. Irajah gave the tiniest shake of her head. She wanted to see if she could get the other woman to calm down first before resorting to that.

Though it seemed likely that she couldn't understand her. Head injury? Irajah would have to get a portable scanner in here- where had the one that was supposed to be in this room gone? She signaled a different nurse with what she needed and the man hurried out of the room.

"It's okay," she said, her voice as soothing as possible. "We're here to help, please calm down and lie still."

If that didn't work, well, a sedative would just have to do.

 

[Lok Xiangu]

And her stubborn personality kicked in. Feeling Irajah's two hands over her shoulders and somewhat trying to put her back in a lying position would only mean that she was going to get a good hit from that sedative the nurse had out and ready.

It wasn't that she wasn't appreciating the help from the doctors and nurses. If she had some consciousness left and wasn't majorly injured, then she wouldn't be acting like this at all. But since she didn't even know what in the Nine Hells was going on or if she was alive or dead, then she would continue to try to get up until she succeeded or got a dosage of the sedated drug.

She was about to have the best sleep she ever had in her life.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

"Get that scanner in here!" Irajah shouted over her shoulder as [member="Catya Delarn"] fought. There was no way Irajah was going to over power the other woman. The only reason she'd gotten this far was probably because of weakness from blood loss. And it wasn't even really an option anyway, not with the injuries she had. Stab wound. Internal bleeding for certain. Possible head injury.

Whelp. Sedative it was then.

"You are about to take the best nap ever," Irajah muttered as the nurse came in with the injection.

 

[Lok Xiangu]

She could feel another thing poking through her body which made her squirm and worm at the sense of it. She hated when something entered her body. Especially needles which kind of felt like it. But her sudden and somewhat violent outburst would seize as the medical drug began to kick into her system, and she once again could feel her consciousness fading away to black and the little of her strength began to diminish.

Oh, not again.

Was all that she could think of as she entered in a deep sleep that would last for hours or days at least.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah relaxed slightly as [member="Catya Delarn"] 's body did. She nodded over her shoulder to the ER team, grim determination on her face.

"Alright, let's get to work everyone."

*****

She leaned over, checking the monitor and nodding slightly. She tapped a few of the controls, adjusting the dosage of the sedative. Enough to allow the woman to wake up, but hopefully not enough to let her try to get up.

Slowly, gingerly, she lowered herself in to the chair beside the woman's bed. Everything hurt. Irajah knew that if rolled up her sleeves, the bruises would be worse than usual- darker and deeper. Her hands made no motion to do any such thing.

The dark haired woman waited for Catya to come to. It wouldn't take long.

 

[Lok Xiangu]

Before and during the time when Irajah and the medical staff were attending to Catya's injuries and wounds, some part of the Arkanian Offshoot's subconscious tried to wake up and fight to regain her consciousness. But her fight and struggle would be subjugated by the sedative drug, and when she knew her efforts were futile she would accept defeat to the drug and not fight against her involuntary slumber. Nevertheless, it was a good sleep and Catya probably caught up on all those missed hours of sleeping just to catch criminals and thugs, and uphold the law when others could not.

Then the woman's eyes began to slowly open as the drug allowed her to have some of her consciousness; however, she wouldn't be able to do a whole lot as the drug took away some of her strengths and abilities. Like getting up and moving on.

"Where the hell am I?"

Yes, she had quite the tongue and mouth. Mostly from her days as a Galactic Republic Marine and her career as a vigilante. Her eyes searched until she saw Irajah's pale and weary face.

What should I say?

"Please tell me you're not gonna reap my soul or anything." That was definitely not the best way to start up a conversation between them, but she could use her injures an the drug as an excuse to cover that up.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

"You're at the Central Civilian Medical Center in Avalonia, on Dosuun," she replied with a reassuring, if tired, smile.

It wasn't that uncommon of a first question. And honestly, Irajah never knew just how much someone would remember upon waking if they came into the ER unconscious.

"And no. No..... reaping. Promise," she said with a chuckle. "My name is Doctor Ven. I found you, mostly unconscious, in an alley. You were in rough shape. You're still mildly sedated because, well, honestly I wasn't sure if you'd stay calm at first- don't want you ripping your stitches."

The dark haired doctor settled back in the chair she'd pulled up beside [member="Catya Delarn"]'s bed. They were still in recovery- the woman hadn't been transferred to a room of her own yet. Once Irajah was sure they wouldn't need to be right back in the OR, she'd be moved. But until then....

"Do you think you can tell me what happened?"

 

[Lok Xiangu]

Oh, praise be that she was in a hospital. That was something that she should've figured out with all the scenario that she was in, but she just woke up from the influence of medical drugs. But how long had she been asleep? It felt like days when they injected her with the sedative, but sometimes it would be patients that had the impression of that. After all, this wasn't her first trip to a hospital or an emergency room as she was once a soldier that served the Galactic Republic until she deserted from its ranks at the One Sith invasion of Togoria. She would never be badly injured unlike the events of last night as she would be injured from enemy fire, and would be back in combat no more than one or two days.

But the mishap from last night would have her stay at the hospital for at least a couple of days, or even some weeks. And she hated to be stuck in places such as these.

"Oh, yeah. Silly me, I should've figured that out," the Arkanian Offshoot replied back to the doctor. She still struggled to move her body as the drug still kept her in submission.

Then she was asked about what had happened to her. Catya couldn't just tell her she was some vigilante that attacked some cartel ring. Not many people were too fond of people like the Delarn, and especially not the legal enforcers of the law. She would have to lie.

"I...uh...got jumped and mugged, but I was able to defend myself. And speaking about last night, do you know what happened to my armor and blasters? Kinda cost me big time for those things." More like she stole them from the old Republic's military.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

Well, that explained the lack of ID at least. Something didn't jive quite right with the story, but Irajah let it go with nothing more than a small frown.

"Everything you had on you when you were brought in is in storage," she assured her, "Do you have anyone you'd like me to call, to tell them where you are?"

Then paused for a moment. Slowly, deliberately, she continued. "I'll have security come in when you're feeling up to it- so you can give a statement. Crime isn't that common in Avalonia, but it's not unheard of- they'll want to know so they can find whoever did it."

She watched [member="Catya Delarn"]'s face carefully. Irajah wasn't particularly sly, no matter how nonchalant she thought she was being, so it was kind of obvious that she didn't fully buy the other woman's story.

 

[Lok Xiangu]

Oh, no. Not the cops.

She couldn't afford to have the authorities to come in, and ask her for a statement and question her. No way to lie out of what happened last night. She was able to blatantly lie to someone like Doctor Ven as she assumed they didn't had much experience in forensics and didn't really know the whole details of the story. All she had to do was make her story sound legit without contradicting herself or put things out of chronological order.

"Uh, no thanks. I'm all by myself and don't really have anyone to reach out to," the Vigilante said to Irajah. That saying had some truth and slander in it. She did had her family, but she didn't really bothered them that much for any kind of aid. And then she really didn't had any friends. When a girl like Catya ventured from star system to star system just to put a dent to endless crime, it was pretty hard to maintain a friendship with anyone.

"Once I'm all healed up and patched up, I'll cooperate with the police and give them whatever information I have." Most of the people she encountered were nothing but lifeless bodies, but there were some fortunate ones that escaped. And speaking about escape, she needed to escape from this hospital.

"You think you can get me something to eat and drink, Doc? Kinda hungry and thirsty." If everything went as the Delarn envisioned it to be, she would try to get off from her bed and maybe acquire her personal belongings before she would run for the exit. That is if she, alone, could free herself from the sedative drug that was flowing through her veins.

[member="Irajah Ven"]